From past posts on this site I know there are some pilots and others that may enjoy this.

Here is an incredible photograph. The link below is to a page that tells the story behind the image. The image you see on that page is not the topic. To see the shot, click on the link that says: a (2.7Mb) still image shot by staff Sgt. Bennie J. davis III. This could be a pulitzer prize winner.

Also interesting are the other photographs and video surrounding the incident.

I like to think I can shoot ANYTHING, but I think I would have been RUNNING for cover....

http://www.avweb.com/newswire/10_06a/brief...s/186633-1.html

joseph
coward

Amazing picture. Thanks for posting it. I've had one introductory lesson. As soon as the /6 is finished, the next project is private pilot lessons and certificate. I knew I wouldn't have the time to devote to it until then.

that's an amazing photo.
Not only did he stand there, his timing was incredible!

WOW!

The story (from the link):

Thunderbirds Crash: Truth In Images

By Glenn Pew
Newswriter, Editor


AVweb has confirmed that the image last Thursday posted to our Picture Of The Week section of Capt. Christopher Stricklin's Sept. 14, 2003, ejection from Thunderbirds jet number 6 -- roughly eight-tenths of a second before aircraft impact -- is in fact authentic. It was shot by Staff Sgt. Bennie J. Davis III, Still Photographer, U.S. Air Force, from the catwalk atop the tower at Mountain Home AFB, and was not officially released by the Air Force until last Friday afternoon.

For the photographically inclined, Staff Sgt. Davis said he shot images with a Nikon D1X camera using a 300-mm lens with an aperture setting of 2.8 and shutter speeds of 1/1000 and 1/2000. For the now famous (and now official) shot, Davis "waited for the aircraft to level and clicked the shutter." And yes, he did experience some concern that the jet, which the Air Force says Stricklin turned away from the crowd, appeared instead to be directed at the tower. By his own account, the wreckage stopped just 100 feet shy of the tower's base. The nature of the lenses involved offer explanation for the automobiles so clearly visible in Davis' still image, but absent from the in-cockpit video. The picture and story have generated a great deal of material, rumors and interest. So we invite you to enjoy:


Here's a crop and resize:

According to the story the pilot only zero'd his altimeter instead of calculating the difference in elevation between his home airfield & the one he was performing at. 1000 feet difference was enough to loose a $20.4 million plane. He needed to climb to 2500 ft for the manuver....... oops
He is now working at the Pentagon!
Fantastic video tho!

.......b

LOL!

Bet all his new co-workers present him with a handsome 8X10 of that shot to place on his new desk.

Hey...did we just buy that plane?

I have smoked an Air Force, and a Navy pilot in dogfights, 5-5, and 4-5. I am a dogfighting fool.

Glad he made it out, he had time, he knew it wasn't going well a few seconds back..

Hey!

M

The plane crashed 8/10ths of a second after he ejected. I'm curious .... how does a pilot, at the speed and close proximity he was at, decide to eject? Strictly visual, or strictly gages?

Joseph,
I served as a combat motion picture cameraman in the USAF (69-73)...the hardest shoot is the one where they are shooting back at you....

Some thought provoking information for you flying types: 1967 - 1971 I was in the US of A Air Force, as a Flight Simulator Tech working on the simulator for the KC-135. We had a couple of Boeing Reps on site who claimed that the factory test pilots had outside looped a KC-135

Harvey

Harvey,
I once filmed a C-5Awind turblance ...the test was to see how far back behind the plane the vortex had effects on trailing aircraft...saw a F-4 get rolled/tossed like a rag doll...but the one that took the cake was a BUFF getting a full roll over at altitude... got it on film... it was immediately confiscated... I know for a fact that the Full Bird flying the BUFF was "retired" within a month....I had to appear at his "retirement hearing" as a witness....

Huh? I have no idea what you guys are talking about! Sounds interesting, though. Could you dumb it down for those of us not familiar with aircraft lingo?

HUUUMMMM....

hey guys... for those of us who need the "dumbing down"...
Please define "BUFF"


T

Dakotaewing said:

I'll do this in two messages to make sure the pictures post correctly

Aircraft are normally designed for positive acceleration. Most loops you see done are Inside loops which produce mostly positive acceleration:

In an outside loop, almost all of the stress is negative acceleration, very easy to do major damage to the airframe, like ripping off the wings in flight

Harvey

BUFF= Big Ugly Fat Fu@#$%ker...in lay terms....A B-52

Ok, I think everything makes sense. Cool stuff! I could see an outside loop being very stressful on an aircraft. Very impressive.

A b-52 doing a roll, wow!

You should see a buff do a cartwheel, it's major ugly.


M

Miles,
If you have ever seen any footage of the B-52's flying the "Rolling Thunder" missions over Hanoi....I probably filmed it....we lost a number of those planes to SAM's...and the camera never blinked....those images are still embedded in my mind...from the cartwheels to just totally exploding...what a waste of men's lives...

I was going to say that you had a real adventure most of the time but seeing something like that would be more of a nightmare to me. I think I'd be totally scared shitless that I'd be next. Had too many of those while being in Nam on the "boat". I guess what I'm trying to say is You're lucky but you're not due to having seen so many die. We do what we gotta do and live with it.

Sorry you had to go through that.

........b

Thanks Bruce....I did 2 tours....was young and thought I was invincable...like all young men....but there are 58,000+ men and women who gave more than I did...they are the hero's...I knew what I was getting myself into...I asked to go...
saw more than a lifetime of death and destruction...911 made me even more consertative....I don't know if you ever heard the phrase during the Nam...but now it sticks in my mind about the middle east..."Kill em all...let God sort em out"
Ed

It's insane what some people will do, God bless those people.


M